Governor Proposes Consolidating Some Smaller State Agencies

Albany, NY – Paterson said in his State of the State message that he plans toconsolidate a number of state agencies with related missions, as ameans of streamlining government and saving money.

In a teleconference call, Paterson's Director of State Operations,Valerie Grey, said the governor's budget proposal includes mergingthe Department of Economic Development and the Empire StateDevelopment Corporation into one entity, and consolidating severalagencies, including the Crime Victims Board and Office for Preventionof Domestic Violence into the Division of Criminal Justice Services.She says human resources, grant applications and legal departmentscould be shared.

"We're really trying to change the way we do business around here,"said Grey. "And shake things up a little bit."

The plan would merge a number of emergency service agencies into theDivision of Homeland Security, and the offices of Medicaid InspectorGeneral and Welfare Inspector General would share support services.It would also consolidate all licensing for business professionalsinto one electronic system, and merge agency call centers into oneunified system.

Many of the agencies involved in the consolidations are small, andthe savings is estimated at just $15 million dollars, but Grey saysthis is just the first step. She says more mergers, perhaps on alarge scale, are expected. She says no lay offs would occur as aresult of the changes, but four management level positions could belost.

"We plan to very aggressively manage attrition," said Grey.

A spokesman for the largest state worker union, the Civil ServiceEmployees Association, Steve Madarasz, says the union is remainingneutral on the mergers, as long as there are indeed no lays offs andthe ultimate arrangement "provides administrative savings withoutcompromising service".

"We certainly would be supportive," said Madarasz.

The union agreed with the governor to give up some benefits forfuture employees in exchange for no lay offs of state workers inPaterson's state spending plan.

Business groups praised the proposal, saying it is long overdue, andwould improve government efficiency.

While the governor can do some of the consolidations on his own, hewill need legislative approval to formally merge some of the agencies.In a statement, Senate Finance Committee Vice Chair Liz Krueger saysshe thinks the governor should go even further.